A Republic, If You Can Keep It
Contributed by Nan Potts
“We Have Given You A Republic, If You Can Keep It.” — Benjamin Franklin
Democracy. That word has been debased in American society and around the world, for many years. Yet have you ever questioned what our Founding Fathers defined it as?
If you recall your Civics or US History classes (before circa 1970), the term democracy, at the time our US Constitution was ratified in 1788 and implemented on March 4th, 1789, was defined as a Pure Democracy, “The control of an organization or group by the majority of its members.” In other words, “A form of democracy in which the laws and policies are made directly by the citizens rather than by representatives.” — dictonary.com
You should also recall our Founding Fathers avoided establishing a democracy because of its pitfalls. It was passionately debated in the Continental Congress and in the Federalist Papers.
Here a few examples why:
“Pure democracy cannot subsist long nor be carried far into the departments of state - it is very subject to caprice and the madness of popular rage.” — JOHN WITHERSPOON, Signer of the Constitution
“Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security, or the rights of property; and have, in general, been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.” — JAMES MADISON,The Federalist, On The New Constitution (Werner, 1818).
“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” — JOHN ADAMS
“A democracy is a volcano which conceals the fiery materials of its own destruction. These will produce an eruption and carry desolation in their way. The known propensity of a democracy is to licentiousness [excessive license] which the ambitious call, and ignorant believe to be liberty.” — FISHER AMES, Author of the House Language for the First Amendment
In David Barton’s book, Original Intent (5th edition, 2008), he proposes a question when judging public policy: “. ..Is this act consistent with our form of government?”
This is a simple question; yet the answer may often be in error since many citizens today have been misled about our form of government. We have grown accustomed to hearing that we are a democracy; such was never the intent. The form of government entrusted to us by our Founders was a republic, not a democracy.
“Our Founders chose not to establish a democracy in America and made it very clear that we were never to become a democracy:
“We have seen the tumult of democracy terminate ... as [it has] everywhere terminated, in despotism... Democracy! savage and wild. Thou who wouldst bring down the virtuous and wise to thy level of folly and guilt.” — GOVERNOR MORRIS, Signer and penman of the Constitution
So, what is a Republic? By definition, “Republic — a state in which the supreme power rests in the body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by representatives chosen directly or indirectly by them.” — dictionary.com
Barton states it very specifically in, Original Intent, “Many Americans today seem to be unable to define the difference between the two, but there is a difference - a big difference. That difference rests in the source of authority.
“A pure democracy operates by direct majority vote of the people. When an issue is to be decided, the entire population votes on it, the majority wins and rules. A republic differs in that the general population elects representatives who then pass laws to govern the nation. A democracy is rule by majority feelings (what the Founders described as a ‘mobocracy’); a republic is rule by law.
“A republic is the highest form of government devised by man, but it also requires the greatest amount of human care and maintenance. If neglected, it can deteriorate into a variety of lesser forms, including a democracy (a government conducted by popular feeling); anarchy (a system in which each person determines his own rules and standards); oligarchy (a government run by a small council or a group of elite individuals); or dictatorship (a government run by a single individual). As John Adams explained:
“ ‘A Democracy will soon degenerate into an anarchy, such an anarchy that every man will do what is right in his own eyes and no man's life or property or reputation or liberty will be secure, and every one of these will soon mould itself into a system of subordination of all the moral virtues and intellectual abilities, all the powers of wealth, beauty, wit, and science, to the wanton pleasures, the capricious will, and the execrable abominable] cruelty of one or a very few.’ ”
Our English language has the propensity of evolving meanings of words and their usage. If you look at the current definition being tossed about, you’ll discover its use has expanded its meaning to suite modern narratives, “A government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system.” — dictionary.com
In order to protect our American republic, we must understand its foundation, its meaning and purpose — its intent, when it was written. And, why the Founders penned it thusly. Look at ancient Rome, once a shining republic that was allowed to slip into a pure democracy, later slid into an empire (dictatorship) and finally fell to anarchy and into ruin. All of us should learn from such histories and from it support or oppose the policies on the basis of consistency with our form of government.
It’s time to correct the current narrative. We The People were given a republic not a democracy. As long as our republic survives, so will our democratic process.